Joan of Arc
The Hundred Years War ends in England’s agonising defeat – but triumph for Jonathan Sumption
England’s final, agonising defeat in the Hundred Years War brings Jonathan Sumption’s monumental history to a close. David Crane salutes 43 years of research and writing
Centuries of martyrs
There is no redemption in this account of the birth of Latin Christendom, with ‘heretics’ suffering cruelly for the beliefs, just as Christian martyrs had under the Romans
Rhapsodic banalities: I, Joan, at the Globe, reviewed
‘Trans people are sacred. We are divine.’ The first line of I, Joan at the Globe establishes the tone of…
The songs my father’s mistress taught me ignited my love of France
When John Julius Norwich was a boy, his father was British ambassador in Paris.School holidays were spent in the exceptionally…
The Book of Joan: part apocalyptic tale, part erotic poem
Does J.G. Ballard’s ‘disquieting equation’, ‘sex x technology = the future’, still hold? Not in Lidia Yuknavitch’s novel, which imagines…
Wasn’t Lawrence of Arabia more annoying than this new play suggests?
T.E. Lawrence is like the gap-year student from hell. He visits a country full of exotic barbarians and after a…
Why does drama always end up sneering at religion?
Theo Hobson explores the enduring appeal that religion has for dramatists
Shakespeare at his freest and most exuberant: The Wars of the Roses reviewed
The RSC’s The Wars of the Roses solves a peculiar literary problem. Shakespeare’s earliest history plays are entitled Henry VI…
From Plotinus to Heidegger: a history of European thought in 48 pages
T.S. Eliot liked to recall the time he was recognised by his London taxi driver. Surprised, he told the cabbie…
